Food Production Practice Questions

What is meant by food security?

Which one of the following is a biological factor that threatens food security?

Tick (✓) one box.

• A falling human birth rate
• New pests and pathogens that affect farming
• An increase in the number of supermarkets
• A fall in the cost of agricultural fertilisers

Explain how the failure of the rains in 2022 could lead to famine in this region.

Changing diets in developed countries can also threaten food security in poorer countries.

Give one reason why.

What type of organism is Fusarium?

Tick (✓) one box.

• a bacterium
• a fungus
• a protist
• a virus

Name substance X, the food source added to the vessel.

Explain why sterile air is bubbled through the vessel.

After harvesting, the biomass is purified.

Give one reason why mycoprotein is a useful food for a growing human population.

Calculate the percentage increase in the mass of the breeding stock between 2010 and 2020.

Explain how the fishing quota introduced in 2008 has caused the change in the breeding stock shown in Table 1.

Controlling the size of the holes in fishing nets also helps to conserve fish stocks.

Explain how.

Calculate the mean gain in body mass per day for the piglets in group C.

Give your answer in grams per day.

Group B gained more body mass than group A.

Explain why, in terms of energy transfer.

Explain why feeding the piglets a high protein feed increased their growth.

Human insulin is produced using genetically modified bacteria.

Describe how large amounts of insulin are obtained from these bacteria.

Insulin used to be extracted from the pancreases of pigs and cattle.

Give one advantage of using genetically modified bacteria to produce insulin instead.

Golden rice is a genetically modified crop. It contains beta-carotene, which the human body changes into vitamin A. A lack of vitamin A in the diet can cause blindness.

Explain how growing golden rice could improve the health of people in countries where rice is the main food.

Evaluate the use of intensive indoor units, rather than free-range farming, for producing chicken meat.

Use Table 3 and your own knowledge.

Calculate the mean mass of cereal produced per person in 2020.

Give your answer in kg.

A person in this country needs 250 kg of cereal each year for a healthy diet.

Use Table 4 and your answer to part (a) to evaluate whether this country has food security.

The mass of cereal produced in this country has increased since 1990, but the mass produced per person has fallen.

Give two biological factors, other than the increase in population, that could reduce the mass of cereal produced in this country in the future.